It is clearly a manifest evidence of goodness that
the consent of all should concur in the election of one person.
Since, then, the account which we have received from our brethren and
fellow-bishops declared that you are summoned to the position of
priesthood by the unanimous consent of the whole council and the will
of the most serene Prince, we have rendered thanks with great
exultation to Almighty God our Creator, who
has made your life and actions so commendable in the past as to bring
about (what is exceedingly to your credit) your approving yourself to
the judgment of all. With them we also fully agree with regard to
the person of your Fraternity. And we implore Almighty
God that, as His Grace has chosen your
Charity, so He would keep you in all respects under His
protection. We have sent you the pallium according to custom,
and, renewing our commission, we appoint you to act as vicar of the
Apostolic See, admonishing you that you so shew yourself gentle to your
subjects that they may be provoked to love you rather than to fear
you. And, if perchance any fault of theirs should require notice,
you will be careful so to correct their transgressions as by no means
to discard paternal affection from your mind. Be watchful and
assiduous in the care of the flock committed to you, and strict in the
zeal of discipline, so that the wolf lying in wait may not prevail to
disturb the Lord’s sheepfold, or have
opportunity for deceit, so as to hurt the sheep. Make haste with
full purpose of heart to win souls to our God;
and know that we have received the name of shepherd not for repose, but
for labour. Let us, then, shew forth in our work what our name
denotes. If we weigh with right consideration the prerogative of
the priesthood, it will be to those who are diligent and do their duty
well for honour, but to those who are negligent assuredly for a
burden. For, as this name, in the sight of God, conducts those who labour and are assiduous for the
salvation of souls to eternal glory, so in the case of the idle and
sluggish it tends to punishment. Through our tongue let the
people committed to us learn that there is another life. Let the
teaching of your Fraternity be to them an acceptable spur to urge them
on, and your life an example for imitation. For your
Fraternity’s preaching should disclose to them what to love and
what to fear, and your efficiency in this way should reap the fruit of
eternal retribution. But let your deliberate care especially
constrain you never to attempt to make any unlawful ordinations; but,
whenever any are promoted to the clerical order, or, it may be, to some
higher rank, let them be ordained, not for bribes or entreaties, but
for merit. In no ordination let any consideration, in any way
whatever, surreptitiously reach your Fraternity, lest you should be
entangled (which God forbid) in the snares of
simoniacal heresy. For what shall it profit a man, as the
Truth says, if he shall gain the whole word, and lose his own
soul (Mark viii.
36)? Hence it is
necessary for us to look to God in all we do,
to despise temporal and perishable things, and to direct the desire of
our heart to the good things of eternity. Your Holiness’s
present14111411Xenia.
The term denotes, among other kinds of presents, such as were
voluntarily offered to superiors, as by the people of a province to
proconsuls. Those here referred to were such as it was the custom
for bishops to send to the Pope after their ordination or from time to
time. We find other instances of Gregory deprecating such
presents. “The temporal Xenia which you have sent
us, though we are in no need of such, we have nevertheless accepted
with due charity.” (VI. 64, Ad Dominicam episcopum
Carthaginensem.) The word is used also for presents of all
kinds. Cf. e.g. the letter to Ethelbert (XI. 66). I was altogether
unwilling to accept, since it were very unseemly for us to seem to have
received gifts from our plundered and afflicted brethren. But
your messengers got the better of me by another argument, proffering it
to one from whom your Fraternity’s offerings may not be
withheld14121412 Meaning St.
Peter.. For this
you ought before all things to study: how you may provide
imperishable gifts to be offered to the coming judge of souls, to the
end that He may have respect both to you for your profitable labour,
and to us likewise for our exhortation.

1411Xenia.
The term denotes, among other kinds of presents, such as were
voluntarily offered to superiors, as by the people of a province to
proconsuls. Those here referred to were such as it was the custom
for bishops to send to the Pope after their ordination or from time to
time. We find other instances of Gregory deprecating such
presents. “The temporal Xenia which you have sent
us, though we are in no need of such, we have nevertheless accepted
with due charity.” (VI. 64, Ad Dominicam episcopum
Carthaginensem.) The word is used also for presents of all
kinds. Cf. e.g. the letter to Ethelbert (XI. 66).